California

Nadja Adolf called this morning and said that her home was vandalized while she and her husband were out earlier today. Nadja, one of three candidates for city council, said when she arrived home she noticed that someone had chucked eggs onto her porch while she was gone.

“This is so juvenile, it’s unbelievable,” she said.

Nadja called police when she realized what had happened, and they have documented the incident. A police commander said they will increase patrols near her home.

When asked why she thought someone might have thrown the eggs, Nadja pointed to the fact that she was running for council, is an environmentalist, does not like gangs and opposes Measure L, the city’s proposed utility tax.

Nadja is running against incumbents Ana Apodaca and Alan Nagy, all of whom appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

East Bay resident Wynn Grcich spoke at the Newark City Council meeting Thursday and opened her 20-minute speech — which focused largely on water issues throughout the region — by urging the state’s longest sitting mayor (Dave Smith) to run for Governor. She lauded Smith’s leadership — particularly his effort in helping Newark maintain a fairly balanced budget over the years — and offered to run his campaign. She opined that if San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom could run — ever after leading his city into more than $300 million in debt — that Smith should try his hand.

Mayor Smith chuckled and remarked “only if I can take all of these people (the council and city staff) with me.”

UPDATE: Teen arrested after running from home to nearby church, gun recovered. Story to come shortly …

Fremont cops are currently (10 a.m.) working a SWAT incident near Paseo Padre Parkway and Darwin this morning. Word is they are looking for a teen who stole a gun out of a truck at a liquor store last night.

Story should be online momentarily, but a 25-year-old mom was shot and wounded this morning in a Union City apartment during an argument with her husband. Cops say two children were home at the time (and the mother of the suspect), but none of them were hurt. Woman is expected to live, although she is undergoing surgery as I write this.

UPDATE (4:30 p.m.): Assistant City Manager Dennis Jones confirms that the main change is the length of the proposed tax from 20 years to 6 years, and the language will be included on the ballot. There will be an opportunity for public comment on the issue, Jones said.

Got word late this afternoon that Newark has called a special city council meeting for WEDNESDAY (Aug.5), 7:30 p.m. at City Hall so that the board can discuss revisions to the utility users tax proposed by city staff. No word yet what changes are being suggested, but No Newark Tax — a group of citizens opposing the ballot measure — seems to think it’s to reduce the length of the proposed tax from 20 years to just six years. More to come when the city releases the agenda, which should be within the hour …

Typically, stuff we hear on the scanner is treated by us as nothing more than a news tip. In other words, we won’t print what we hear on the scanner unless it can be verified by police. But sometimes there are items we hear over the radio that are just too amusing not to mention somewhere.

Such was the case about 3:15 p.m. Tuesday in Newark where two ice cream vendors apparently got into a shouting match — not sure exactly where — about who has the territorial rights to peddle Push Pops in a certain neighborhood. It’s unclear if we’re talking about guys actually pushing carts and clanging handlebar bells, or sellers with the trucks and annoying music. Regardless, if this thing resulted in fisticuffs, it would have been a great story to write. As it is now, it’s nothing more than blog fodder. Enjoy.

I attended the Newark Unified School District’s budget workshop meeting last night — a session that drew more than 50 people, most of whom were members of the teacher’s and district employee unions — and Chief Business Official Steven Shields told the board of directors that they may need to cut as much as $6 million from the district’s existing and future budgets. The district’s finance team is still interpreting the budget that was passed last week by the governor, so it is unclear exactly how much Newark Unified will need to trim. But Shields projected that it could be as little as $4.5 million and as much as $6 million to be safe.

Shields also spent 90 minutes discussing areas where cuts could be made within the district. This information was almost identical to that which was released during a special session last week. But what was made clear is that the information he was discussing was not a recommendation of what items or programs should be cut, rather options available to the board. Among the hot button items are the class size reduction program, salary reductions and teacher layoffs.

The meeting on Tuesday was informational in nature, so no decisions were made about where to trim the budget. However, decisions are expected to begin to be made at the next board meeting, scheduled to be held March 3. At that time, the district may have an idea if it will need to layoff teachers. If that avenue becomes a possibility for the board, the district will have to notify by March 15 the teachers whose jobs may be changed or cut. Those notices can be rescinded.

Several members of the audience were given a chance to address the board before the workshop. One teacher said that if class sizes significantly increase he may consider quitting his job.

“This isn’t what I signed up for,” he said. “I would consider leaving teaching.”

Additional information about the district’s budget can be found on Newark Unified’s NEW Web site (link). From the home page click the “Budget Crisis” icon near the top. There also are a few avenues in which parents, teachers or community members can voice their concerns or make suggestions about how to solve the impending issues. Those options are available on the Web site.

There is a report on the Web site for one of our local television stations that mentions a man being arrested in Fremont on suspicion of rape in Mexico. What the report fails to mention is that this is Fremont, Neb. Yes, Nebraska, as in clear across the country. The report was not produced by said television station though, so it’s not their fault per se. It was written (or re-written) by a local wire service. Here is the original short story as printed in the Omaha World-Herald. Figured I’d let our good readers know what’s going on before they think we’re slippin’.

Development leaders are hosting a community meeting Wednesday night at the Newark Community Center to share and discuss some of the proposed plans for housing development within the city.

By 2014, Newark will have to accommodate for 1,800 new housing units, a third of which is required by the state to be of the high-density (aka: apartments) fashion. Spoke to Terrence Grindall, director of community development, and he said this is meeting is an opportunity for residents to share their comments and concerns about such projects, which could involve tearing down shopping center(s) or abandoned school site(s) currently being used for other purposes. Continue Reading →

Just got a press release stating that Alberto Torrico’s Safe Surrender bill was vetoed this week by Governor Schwarzenegger. The bill, which overwhelmingly passed both the state Senate and Assembly, would have extended the time that mothers have to safely surrender their newborn to designated agencies. As it is right now, the bill, signed in 2001, gives mothers 72 hours to surrender their newborn to fire stations and emergency rooms, an alternative to abandoning the child. The proposed bill would have given mothers a week to make that decision, and would have placed the state Department of Social Services in charge of the Surrender program.